SG1: Talion

[tenaya]

I liked it.


What I really liked about this episode was we got to see Teal'c go 100% into Jaffa revenge mode. There is something riveting about him when he has no brakes on. Powerful. Scary. Elemental. Whoa! He obviously hasn't been tamed by living with the Tau'ri, he just choses to conform to the Tau'ri standards when it pleases him to. I'm sorry but I did like him blowing up that one bad guy. That was impressive and surprising.

And I liked it when he grabbed Daniel's arm when he was demanding the truth of what had "transpired" while he was out. That was neither a threat or bullying; it was more a connection, a plea for an honest, no bullshit answer. I do love their relationship.

I did keep thinking how things would be different it Jack were still in the picture. He would never had allowed a 'stop at any cost' order to go out on Teal'c. It would be another "over my dead body" moment for him. And if he were still Col. Jack, there would have been no hand to hand fight with Teal'c; if Teal'c had to do something, he would have had his six. Having said that, I laughed and enjoyed it when T kicked Mitchell's butt. The whole disabling Daniel, Vala and Carter with a shock grenade I can see was convenient for the writer, but was totally unacceptable to me. Teal'c wouldn't do that, and besides, won't it leave them blind for a length of time that would be dangerous for them on that planet? "Yes, I will leave you all blind and helpless." NOT.

And the big fight scene at the end surprised me a few times. You expect certain things like Teal'c almost being finished off only to find something extra to fight with, which did happen, but to such an extreme it gave me pause. It kinda gave an extra inning to the fight. But honestly, once Teal'c has been skewered to the floor, that should have been the end of it. When he gets up, that is a real "My name is Inigo Montoya, you killed my mother, prepare to die" moment.

So I liked that this ep went back to the prototype Teal'c, the man that was First Prime. If this had been back in the first three seasons, it would have been a very different interaction with his team.

Comments

[leviathanmuse.livejournal.com]

I have to agree with you on several points.

1. Yes, I love Teal'c when he's at his scary-ass best. Personally, much as I would hate to have that kind of thing happen to me, I like Teal'c being ruthless enough to just blow up the one guy. However, I do like the fact that even after all his years on Earth, he still hasn't forgotten the fact that revenge is a part of who he is. Even though he's done all the vengeance he had to do for himself, he hasn't forgotten that Jaffa still retain that custom, even with the Goa'uld pretty gone.

2. Daniel and Teal'c tactile...yes!

3. I also don't think Jack, once they were offworld, would have kept up the pretense that they were stopping Teal'c. I think he'd have left all of SG-3 at the gate, then the 3 of them would have been waiting in Teal'c's path when he showed up. "Going somewhere without us, hmmm? Why don't we mosey over to the castle."

4. No, Teal'c definitely wouldn't have left them blind and helpless. He would have hit them with a zat so they'd be only unconscious for a little bit and only a bit groggy when they woke up. Definitely not the shock grenade.

5. LOL at the thought of "I'm Teal'c Montoya..."

[tenaya.livejournal.com]

1. Teal'c is supposed to be over a 100 (though they never gave that fact more than lip service.) He lived with the values of the Jaffa for a very long time. I like the fact that he still really is a scary-ass, yet he can be regal and gentle and has mastered humor.

2. I think that both Jack and Teal'c have figured out that if you want to focus Daniel's attention on you or what you are saying, you need to touch him. He's like a flower towards the sun. *g*

3. You're right. He would not have even given lip service to his orders once on the planet because he would not have given any credence to the bad guy's line of bull. He would have given Teal'c complete back up and made sure that Teal'c won and didn't nearly die doing it.

4. Yep, a zat would work.

5. I have to confess I read that on minnow1212 lj and thought, oh, yeah! That is so true! I should have noted it at the time but I'm lousy with these codes.

[leviathanmuse.livejournal.com]

1. Yeah, they only seem to want to bring that up when it suits them. Have you seen the rest of the season yet?

2. I figure that Daniel's parents were also very tactile people and when they died he was pretty much left without anyone to give him the hugs he craved until he met up with SG1.

3. Yeah, the rest of SG1 would have mopped up the Jaffa while Teal'c dealt wth Arcad.

This was definitely one of those episodes that showed the glaring differences between Jack's command style and Mitchell's. Of course, I actually do like the fact that they're willing to point out the differences (like the whole bit where he confesses to Landry that he's not in command of SG1). I also do like the fact that Mitchell tends to make mistakes that Jack wouldn't have. I don't think, from what they've shown of his past, that Mitchell has ever commanded as many people as Jack and that he's never worked with anyone outside of the USAF. Jack seems to be a lot more comfortable with all kinds of people whereas Mitchell seems to be a little out of his depth with people outside the USAF command structure. Jack was able to rein in his people, which Mitchell really can't do. He's gotten better, but he's going to need a lot more experience before he can consider himself anywhere near as good a leader as Jack.

[tenaya.livejournal.com]

1. I haven't seen the next ep, and I skimmed the last ep for the Daniel moments. I just had to be sure TPTB hadn't done something to Daniel as a parting gift. Anyway, I do know they finally used Teal'c's longevity in the plot. But even still, wasn't Bra'tac like 137 or something? With Teal'c just being over 100 I figured they aged quite quickly after about 125 or so, to explain Bra'tac looking so much older. And I guess this means that the tretonin will continue to give Teal'c longevity, though it doesn't assist in his healing.

2. Interesting idea. What age do you think he was when his parents died. Fanon says about 8 doesn't it? I kinda thought he might have been 6 or so though I can't recall my reasoning now.

3. You are so totally right there.

4. Yes, I like that they made Mitchell different than Jack (thank god.) I doubt that Mitchell has any experience in leading a ground based, for all intents and purposes, commando unit and it shows. He doesn't really have any innate authority to lead SG-1 due to this inexperience. He's more of a road manager. *g* But, I like that he knew this. The part that really bugged me was when he went all Rambo in the second half of last season, and they actually showed the others being impatient and annoyed with him in a few eps, like the one where they were all in leather with the space corn. I suppose that could fall under characterization as Mitchell begins to feel more comfortable.

I think Mitchell could be an effective leader of another team, but yes, he needs more time before he's anywhere near Jack's abilities.

[leviathanmuse.livejournal.com]

1. Bra'tac hasn't been harping so much on his age since they started the tretonin. I can only assume that since he's no longer dependant on a symbiote that as long as he keeps himself reasonably healthy, he'll be around a bit longer than he would have. I know that in the 5th year he kept going on about he was going to die in a couple of years because no symbiote would supposedly accept him. Don't get that impression any more that he's quite as worried about getting older.

2. Since neither the series nor the movie says exactly when Daniel was orphaned, though we know he was quite young, anywhere between about 5-9 works for me. There does seem to be a fanon thing about 8, but it's not clear in the show.

4. I think the Rambo stage was just reactionary to the fact that he felt like he wasn't in control. So, until such time as he managed to get over himself, he turned into Rambo. I think he finally just made peace with the fact that he was the new guy and that his best bet was just to be the road manager instead of the leader of the band.

Evil Orville Redenbacher...snerk!

[tenaya.livejournal.com]

1. The writers were big on setting deadlines back then. I think giving Teal'c a symbiote with a 6 year deadline turned out to be inconvenient as the show kept getting picked up. *g* Silly writers.

4. So, The Rambo thing was his 'teenage years?' *g*

"Evil Orville Redenbacher" is quite a tongue twister. I am impressed Browder managed it so easily! I bet he practiced.

[leviathanmuse.livejournal.com]

1. That could have been a fun episode, having to try and steal a symbiote for Teal'c.

4. Yeah, definitely testosterone. Needed to get it out of his system.

Considering the stuff he used to spout on "Farscape", Evil Orville Redenbacher must have seemed pretty easy.

[tenaya.livejournal.com]

I need to rewatch Farscape. I probably saw about 3/4s of them. It was a lot of fun. I dislike how expensive the dvds are. I was thinking of signing up for netflix to see them all.

[leviathanmuse.livejournal.com]

Yeah, they were a bit on the pricey side, but we had to get them all.